Reisman: Playland scarf rule is about safety, not discrimination

Sep. 1, 2011

Written by

Journal News columnist

Remember that the next time you go to Playland Amusement Park. Call it the Isadora Duncan Rule.

Duncan was a famous dancer from the early years of the 20th century whose signature eccentricity was to don layers of flowing scarves even when she wasn't performing.

One day in 1927 while cavorting in the French Riviera, Duncan made the fatal mistake of tying one of her favorite silk numbers around her neck before climbing into her mechanic boyfriend's car. According to one account, the car sped off and the scarf got caught in the spokes of a wheel, which nearly decapitated the 50-year-old dancer.

Her death inspired Gertrude Stein to observe that "affectations can be dangerous."

The Muslim head covering called a hijab is not an affectation but a religious article of clothing. And it was at the center of a bizarre fracas at county-owned Playland on Tuesday afternoon when some female Muslim park patrons in a tour group celebrating the end of Ramadan were told that they couldn't wear their head scarves on some of the faster rides, among them the Crazy Mouse roller coaster and the Dragon Coaster. The concern was strictly public safety.

Since it opened, Playland has been the site of all kinds of accidental deaths, starting in the 1920s when a 19-year-old man was thrown from a ride called the Whip. Twenty-three years ago, a child died on the Dragon Coaster after choking on chewing gum.

During one bad skein from 2004 to 2007, three people — two of them children — died on rides.

Drownings have also occurred at Playland, one of them involving a drunk who foolishly waded into Playland Lake, which is off-limits to swimming. I covered the drowning of a little girl for this newspaper back in the 1980s.

In the annals of tragedy, none of the fatal accidents involved scarves.

Well, there's always a first time. (See the Isadora Duncan Rule, and throw in Murphy's Law for good measure.)

Imagine the inevitable scenario. Some young woman in a hijab needlessly dies on the Dragon Coaster and what follows is heartbreak, finger-pointing and another multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed against Westchester County.

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Playland is a liability insurer's nightmare. Case in point: The family of that aforementioned drunk sued the county for wrongful death in 2006 and just this summer secured a settlement for $500,000.

This time, however, preventive action was taken.

The county parks department had the good sense to notify the tour organizers in advance. The Muslim American Society of New York was told verbally and in writing that hats and scarves — anything that flows in the wind — could not be worn on certain attractions as a matter of long-standing policy.

In short, the onus was wisely put on the Muslim leaders to explain the policy to their group members. That way there would be no misunderstandings. Nobody would be accused of being insensitive to religious customs or, worse, called a bigot, which would only serve to add more sparks of animosity into the tinderbox of post-9/11 fear and loathing.

Evidently, the Muslim group failed in carrying out its responsibilities.

The result of that failure was that the policy ultimately had to be explained instead by seasonal park rangers, whose job description, I'm willing to bet, does not include knowledge of the finer points of multiculturalism and diversity.

So things got heated. There was a lot of arguing, some pushing and shoving, and then a fight broke out. Fifteen people were arrested.

For many, the day at the park was ruined.

One 17-year-old girl wearing a hijab said later that she was discriminated against because of her religion. That's nonsense.

Her religious freedom wasn't being abridged in the least. The Constitution wasn't violated. She could wear the hijab anywhere she wanted, just not on the listed rides.

Discrimination against Muslims does happen. Since the terrorists attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the number of complaints brought before the federal Equal Employment Opportunity have been off the charts. Over a 10-year period starting in 2001 and ending in 2010, the number of charges have gone from 330 to 790, a 139.4 percent increase.

Some of them are valid, but others strike me as unreasonable — for example, a female employee at a Disneyland resort hotel who insisted she be allowed to wear a heard scarf even though she worked at an attraction that had a 1900s American theme.

But the Playland situation was all about safety.

Rules are rules.

Look at the painted height line at the Dragon Coaster. If you're under 3 feet tall, you can't go on. It's a rule. Sorry, but no little people are allowed.

No scarves are allowed either. If crazy old Isadora Duncan had tried to climb aboard, they'd have told her to take a hike, too.

End of story.

But is it really the end? I wouldn't be surprised if some kind of a lawsuit comes out of this, no matter how baseless it might be. You can almost count on it.